BASF excited about prospects for D2E7, as rumor mill talks of pharma

Germany's BASF is reasonably content with its pharmaceutical pipelineand believes it may have a potential blockbuster on its hands, according to Eggert Voscherau, board member responsible for health and nutrition. However, his comments, made to the Marketletter at the company's fall press conference in Ludwigshafen, were overshadowed by rumors that BASF is considering a sale of its Knoll pharmaceuticals unit.

Eli Lilly heads the list of companies thought to be interested in buying Knoll, followed by Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pharmacia Corp, Sanofi-Synthelabo and Procter & Gamble. However, if there is any truth in the rumor that BASF has appointed investment bankers Wasserstein Perella to seek a buyer for Knoll, which is valued at around $6 billion, the timing would seem surprising, given the performance of the division in the third quarter.

For the group as a whole, sales rose 27% to 9.19 billion euros ($7.90 billion), while operating income before special items increased 10.4% to 765 million euros. Pharmaceutical sales were up 5% in the quarter to 659 million euros, while operating profit soared 78.8% to 152 million euros, which BASF said was helped by "the success of restructuring measures."